Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Making It Explicit' and 'Reply to First Objections'

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5 ideas

3. Truth / C. Correspondence Truth / 2. Correspondence to Facts
10355 Facts can't make claims true, because they are true claims [Brandom, by Kusch]
     Full Idea: Brandom says that facts do not make claims true, because facts simply are true claims.
     From: report of Robert B. Brandom (Making It Explicit [1994], p.327) by Martin Kusch - Knowledge by Agreement Ch.18
     A reaction: Nice. Notoriously, anyone defending the correspondence theory of truth in terms of facts had better say what they mean by a 'fact'. Personally I take a fact to be a non-verbal, mind-independent situation in the world, so I disagree with Brandom.
15. Nature of Minds / B. Features of Minds / 2. Unconscious Mind
16634 I can't be unaware of anything which is in me [Descartes]
     Full Idea: Nothing can be in me of which I am entirely unaware.
     From: René Descartes (Reply to First Objections [1641]), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 08.4
     A reaction: This I take to be a place where Descartes is utterly and catastrophically wrong. Until you grasp the utter falseness of this thought, the possibility of you (dear reader) understanding human beings is zero. Here 'I' obviously means his mind.
21. Aesthetics / C. Artistic Issues / 7. Art and Morality
468 Musical performance can reveal a range of virtues [Damon of Ath.]
     Full Idea: In singing and playing the lyre, a boy will be likely to reveal not only courage and moderation, but also justice.
     From: Damon (fragments/reports [c.460 BCE], B4), quoted by (who?) - where?
23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 5. Existence-Essence
3635 Essence must be known before we discuss existence [Descartes]
     Full Idea: According to the laws of true logic, we must never ask about the existence of anything until we first understand its essence.
     From: René Descartes (Reply to First Objections [1641], 108)
28. God / B. Proving God / 3. Proofs of Evidence / a. Cosmological Proof
3634 We can't prove a first cause from our inability to grasp infinity [Descartes]
     Full Idea: My inability to grasp an infinite chain of successive causes without a first cause does not entail that there must be a first cause, just as my inability to grasp infinite divisibility of finite things does not make that impossible.
     From: René Descartes (Reply to First Objections [1641], 106)